Bow steering for hydraulic jetdriven boat



Feb. 26, 1963 H. U. SPENCE BOW STEERING FOR HYDRAULIC JET-DRIVEN BOAT :5Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 16, 1960 INVENTOR. HENRY U- SPENCE r" r" f &fay

ATTORNEYS Feb. 26, 1963 H- U. SPENCE BOW STEERING FOR HYDRAULICJET-DRIVEN BOAT Filed Sept. 16, 1960 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 3

INVENTOR. HENRY u. SPENCE Fay a Fay ATTORNEYS Feb. 26, 1963 H, u. SPENCE3,078,661

BOW STEERING FOR HYDRAULIC JET-DRIVEN BOAT Filed Sept. 16, 1960 5Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR. HENRYZU. SPENCE FIG] BY J 5 6% a fag ATTO RNEYS3,078,ti61 Eatented Feb. 26, 1983 3,078,661 80W STEERING FER HYDRAULHQJE DRIVEN BOAT Henry U. Spence, Painesville, Qhio, assignor to UpsonMachine Products, Inc, Painesville, Ohio, a corporation of (thin FiledSept. 16, 1960, Ser. No. 56,582 8 Claims. (Cl. 60-65254) This inventionrelates to a bow steering device for hydraulic jet driven boats and isparticularly related to a take-off of water under high pressure that isdirected to the bow of a boat to steer the bow.

The hydraulic jet driven boat, in common with the conventional propellerdriven inboard boat, loses much of its maneuverability at low speedssuch as in preparing to dock or otherwise moving in close quarters. Atthis low spee the direction of the bow becomes very susceptible to wind,currents or wake from passing boats. A further problem of presenthydraulic jet driven boats is the lack of a means for steering themwhile going in a reverse direction. With the tremendous increase in boattraflic, this lack of adequate low speed and reverse control ispresenting a serious safety problem which can be eliminated by the useof the bow steering device described herein.

Normal operation of the hydraulic jet driven boat equipped with myproposed bow steering device would be as follows:

At medium or high speeds, the direction of the boat would be controlledby means or a vane or rudder defleeting the propelling jet stream andactivated by means of a steering wheel and cable or other connectingmeans. At low speeds, such as in preparing to dock, the engine speed isreduced and also the control lever is moved slightly backward whichpartially closes the primary jet nozzle which further slows the boat andalso serves to increase the pressure in the diverter valve, which, inturn, increases the elfectiveness of the bow steering nozzles.

As the boat approaches the dock, the control lever may be moved to theleft or right indicating directional control as needed to guide theboats accurately to the dock, and at the same time the lever may bemoved slightly rearward into the reverse position to permit forwarddiversion of the primary hydraulic jet to act as a brake in stopping theboat at the desired spot. After the boat has come to rest against theclock, it may be held firmly in this position by moving the controllever to activate the bow steering nozzle on the opposite side of theboat from the docl: while passengers go ashore or come aboard. Backingout from the dock is accomplished by simply moving the control leverinto the reverse thrust position and guiding the boat as needed by meansof the bow steering control lever.

in general in connection with hydraulic jet pumps for small craft therehave been a number of recent improve ments. Pumps of this type normallytake water through a grated inlet on the underside of a boat andincreased total hydraulic pressure or velocity through a pump. The wateris then directed to the rear of the boat and is exhausted through a jetnozzle under high pressure. The water is deflected for steering by meansof deflector vanes, butterfly valves, or directional nozzles. The pumpdevelops a source of high-pressure water, part of which is then divertedby means of control valves to the bow of the boat, as described in thisinvention, to steer the boat as desired at low speeds and in reverse.

An object of this invention is to provide a new and improved bowsteering device for hydraulic jet turbines with the use of divertervalves for accurate control of the jet stream in order to control thebow of a boat.

A further object of this invention is to provide an improved and novelbow steering means which is operatively related, and functionallyattached to the high pressure source.

A still further object of this invention is to develop an improvedhydraulic pump which is characterized by a tap in the high pressuresection of the pump discharge for bow steering.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, said inventionthen consists of the means hereinafter fully described and particularlypointed out in the claims; the following description setting forth indetail one approved means of carrying out the invention, such disclosedmeans, however, constituting but one of the various ways in which theprinciples of the invention may be used.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view with parts broken away of an inboardhydraulic pump and the bow steering control devices therefor;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1 showing theoverall view of the controls for how steering;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged, fragmentary plan view of FIG. 1 with parts brokenaway showing the bow steering jet dis charge;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 but shown in an alternate position,and showing in schematic lines the flow of water to the port jet nozzlewhich causes a reaction resulting in turning of the craft to starboard;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged schematic, fragmentary plan view of FIG. 1 withparts broken away, showing the diverter valve supply from thehigh-pressure area of a typical pump, said diverter valve supply leadingto the diverter valve for the bow steering;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary portion of FIG. 2, showing the controllever, with the upper link actuating the bow steering diverter valves,and with the lower link actuating the push rod to the reverse flowdiverter valve and the primary jet nozzle; and

F IG. 7 is a sectional View along the line '77 of FIG. 1 looking towardsthe bow of the boat and showing the port jet discharge together with thecontrol rods for the diverter valve.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, 19 shows a smallinboard water craft having an inboard engine shown schematically at 11,a drive shaft 12, a pair of universal couplings 13 and 14 and ahydraulic pump at 15 generally with a boss 16 for the drive shaft 12.The hydraulic pump has an inlet at 16 for the intake of water and a jetnozzle 17 with auxiliary reversing jet nozzles 18' and 19. A tap isshown at 20 for supplying high-pressure fluid by means of a conduit 21to the bow steering diverter valve 22. Other control means for thereversing mechanism is shown schematically at 23 and is operated bymeans of a cable as at 24, which is connected in with the control meansas shown in the cut-away section of FIG. 2.

In general, in connection with FIGS. 1 and 2, there are the steeringwheel 25, cable operated steering means generally at 26 and the cabledrum '27, all of which operate the control butterflies or reaction vanes77 in the hy draulic jet shown schematically in FIG. 5. Hydraulic rod orother means of turning the reaction vanes may also be employed. Thecontrol for the bow steering and for the reversing is by means of acontrol lever in the forward position 28 and in the reverse position 29.There are a pair of links, one for bow steering as at 30 and one for theforward and reverse direction and control as at 31. The diverter valve22 will be explained more fully in connection with other views.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the diverter valve 22. The diverter valvegenerally consists of a body for the valve as shown at 33 with astarboard (right) outlet 34, a port (left) outlet 35, a further conduitas at 36 with coupling means 37 to a jet nozzle as at 38 having gasketand flange means shown generally at 39 as well as a coupling be tweenthe jet nozzle and the conduit as at 40. The opposite jet nozzle issubstantially the same. The passage of water under high pressure is bymeans of a conduit 21 to the inlet plenum 42, and then the water maypass either to the outlet on the starboard side at 34 or to the outleton the port side 35 as selected by the control lever. In the body of thediverter valve 33 are a pair of butterflies as at 44 on the right and 45on the left. The valves 44 and 45 are supported for oscillatory movementby a shaft 46 which is operatively connected to control arms 47 and 48.A plurality of stops 49 and 59 are provided with adjustment screws 51and lock nuts 52 to adjust the angularity of the valves 44 and 45. Theoppo site ends of the control arms 47 and 48 are shown at 53 and 54 andare connected by means of pivot pins 55 and 56 to a collar device whichis shown more particularly in connection with FIG. 7 at 60. The collardevice 60 is freely slidable upon the rod 61. The port collar 62 isattached to control rod 61, the former being adapted to operate the arm48 to operate the valve 45. A starboard collar is shown at 63 to operatearm 47 and valve 44 in a manner similar to the port collar 62.

The rod 61 is connected by means of a yoke assembly which is showngenerally at 64 having a starboard and port dependent arm designated 65and 66 respectively, and connected by means of a pin 67 to an assembly68. In this way, the assembly is directly connected to the rod 61. Bymeans of the yoke 64, which is connected by means of a rivet and pin 69to a universal swivel connection at 70, the entire assembly and thediverter valves may be moved laterally by the control lever.

The diverter valve is caused to be operated by means of rod 61 so thatcollar 62 forces the end of arm 48 at 56 which is keyed to butterflyvalve 45, and as the rod moves to the right as seen in FIG. 3 producingthe action shown schematically in FIG. 4, a flow of water under highpressure may be diverted through the diverter valve out through conduit36 to the jet nozzle 38, which causes the boat to move oppositely to thedirection of the jet discharge.

It can be clearly seen in FIG. 4 that the arm 48 moves away from itsstop 50, and that the buterfly valve 45 moves to a fully open position.Upon its return to a closed position as shown in FIG. 3, the arm 43contacts stop 50 and the butterfly valve closes so that no water canpass therethrough. Upon a further movement of rod 61, collar 62 moves tothe left, but arm 48 does not translate. Rather, it is held in positionbecause of stop 50 and remains closed. Spring 72 returns the rod to theclosed position. When movement is in the opposite direction, the actiontakes place in the opposite manner, and the opposite diverter valve 44opens. When the arms 47 and 48 are against their respective stops asshown in FIG. 3, both butterflies are closed. collar 63 on the rodshould be noted as it has been displaced away from the end of the arm55.

Pressure for the operation of the bow steering device is taken by meansof conduit 21 from the pump discharge. This is shown schematically inFIG. where the pump 15 is driven by means of a shaft through the boss inthe housing to a driving compressor or pump 75. The water passes aseries of stator blades 76 to the control directional butterflies 77 andto the primary jet nozzle. The source of high-pressure fluid for theconduit 21 to the diverter valve is at 78, and the conduit 21 takes thehigh presure fluid to the diverter valve in the bow of the boat.

Complete control of the bow steering is by means of the control leverwhich is shown at 28 in detail in connection with FIG. 6. A socket orother control means 80 for the control lever 28 is shown, and the sockethas a ball 81 in said socket. The forward operating position is shown tothe left, and the reverse operating position is as shown in dotted linesto the right. The

The position of how steering rod is shown at 36 which is connected bymeans of a clevis 32 and a pin 33 to the control lever 22, and there isa ball 81 attached to the end of the rod 30 mounted in said clevis. Auniversal swivel 70 is shown as well as a mounting bracket 84 in whichthe end of the bow steering rod 36 is mounted. By this means the controllever can be moved either forwardly or in reverse, and to the right orto the left. Whole movements to the right or to the left eflect theuniversal swivel so that it translates the movements to the right or tothe left through yoke 64, to the rod 61 and to the diverter valve. Therod 3:} is freely slidable in the collar or yoke member 35 which ispivotally mounted at 86 to yoke member 87 which is riveted to thesteering yoke 64. The control lever actuates the rod 39 which is freelyslidable in the yoke to the forward and reverse positions. As it movesto the right or to the left, the movement is transferred by means of theuniversal swivel to the yoke 64. T e control lever is also attached tothe push rod 31 which has a clevis means 83 attached to the end withadjustment means as at 89, and as the control lever 28 is movedforwardly or to the reverse position, the push rod 31 projects throughits bracket 9% in order to operate the primary jet deflector as seenmore clearly in my copcnding application Ser. No. 56,510 entitled,Steering Device for Turbine Powered Watercraft.

The operation of the bow steering control device for hydraulic jet jumpsis accomplished in the following manner:

To cause the craft to move to the starboard side, the engine may or maynot be throttled down by separate controls (not shown). The controllever 28 is moved to the right, i.e., the starboard side, which opensbutterfly valve 45 to cause a stream of water to flow through jet nozzle38 to the port side, which directs the boat to the starboard. At thesame time, if the control lever is put in reverse operating position,other controls may be moved while steering proceeds. The jet nozzles aregenerally directed downwardly so that adjacent boats or docks will notbe splashed.

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departingfrom the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The presentembodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects asillustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention beingindicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoingdescription, and all changes which come within the meaning and range ofequivalency of the claims are, therefore, intended to be embracedtherein.

I claim:

1. In a bow steering device for a boat equipped with a hydraulic pump, asource of water under high pressure from said pump, conduit means fromsaid source, diverter valve means connected to said conduit, additionaloutlet conduit means from said diverter valve to each side of the boat,jet nozzle openings in said outlet conduit means adjacent the sides ofthe boat for ejecting a high pressure stream from nozzle openings, saiddiverter valve means comprising a single actuating means and butterflyvalves in each outlet conduit, said actuating means comprising a pair ofcontrol arms connected to said butterfly valves, each of said arms beingslidably connected with a transverse arm, control means in connectionwith said transverse arm for selectively rotating one of said butterflyvalves to an open position while maintaining the other in a closedposition.

2. The bow steering mechanism of claim 1, in which said control meansconsists of control arms connected to the butterfly valves and slidablymounted on the transverse arm, with a stop collar and pivot on each ofsaid arms, and resilient spring means on the transverse rod between saidslidable pivots, whereby the transverse rod may be moved in eitherdirection to force the collar against the slidable pivot and to open thecontrol arm and butterfly valves, said spring means returning thebutterfly valves to a neutral position upon release of force on thetransverse rod.

3. The bow steering means of claim 2, in which there is an additionalstopping device on each of the pivot arms oppositely disposed from theslidable pivot to prevent said arms from rotating in the oppositedirection when they are in closed position.

4. The bow steering mechanism of claim 2, in which the stop collars areadjustably mounted on the transverse rod so that a limited amount ofplay may be provided before the butterfly valves are open to provide acontrol for opening of the steering ports before the turning actiontakes place.

5. A bow steering device for a jet driven water craft comprising conduitmeans from a pump providing a source of high-pressure fluid, a divertervalve means connected to said conduit separating the fluid into a number of jet stream passages to the starboard and port sides of a watercraft, said diverter valve closing one of said jet stream passages andopening the other to selectively direct the control of the water tostarboard and port sides of a water craft, and control means for saiddiverter valve comprising a yoke structure connected to said divertervalve and a universal swivel connected to said yoke structure, a controllever and swivel mounted in the water craft having a control rodattached to said swivel passing through said universal swivel and beingpivotally mounted at the opposite end, whereby movement of the controllever to one side or the other will cause the universal swivel and theyoke to control the diverter valve and the direction of movement.

6. A control device for bow steering of a jet water craft provided witha pump, comprising conduit means from said pump providing source ofhigh-pressure fluid, a diverter valve means connected to said conduitseparating the fluid to the port and starboard sides of a water craft,openings on the port and starboard sides of said water craft, saiddiverter valve means having control means in each of said passages tothe port and starboard sides and control means in combination with saiddiverter valve means to open one of said control means and close theother of said control means to direct the source of high-pressure fluidto either the port or the starboard sides of said water craft, and ayoke connected to said control means and a universal swivel on saidyoke, a rod member passing through said universal swivel being pivotallymounted at one end and being swivelled at the other end, said other endbeing connected to a control lever having a control handle, a fixedmounting in the water craft and a connection to said swivel and rod,whereby movement of said control arm lever will cause the universalswivel and the yoke to move and the control arms of the diverter valveas is required to provide directional control to the water craft.

7. The steering device of claim 6 in which a further steering control isprovided by means of another connection on the control lever with aswivel and a push rod, an actuating cable to a primary jet nozzle havingforward and reverse jet nozzle selections, said actuating cableproviding forward and reverse jet nozzle selection for the water craft,whereby movement of the control lever in addition to the bow steeringcontrol will provide a further control by means of an in and outmovement of the push rod to actuate a forward and reverse controlselection of the water craft.

8. A control lever for a water craft provided with a hydraulic pumphaving a discharge which provides a source of high pressure fluid,control means on said pump discharge for selecting forward and reverseflow thereof, a diverter valve means connected to the high pressurefluid, with a conduit separating said fluid into at least one pair ofjet stream passages, one of said pair leading to the starboard side andthe other of said pair leading to the port side of the water craft,openings on the starboard and port sides of said water craft connectedto said jet stream passages, said diverter valve means comprisingcontrol valve means in each of said passages to the port and starboardopenings, and further coordinated control means in connection with saidcontrol valve means to open one valve and close the other valve todirect the source of high-pressure fluid to either the port or starboardsides of said water craft, and a yoke structure inv connection with saidcontrol means, a universal swivel connected to said yoke structure, anda rod structure extending through said universal swivel and slidablyreceived in a bracket fixedly connected to the water craft, a controllever means connected to the opposite end of said rod, which controllever is fixedly mounted in the water craft for multi-directionalangular movement, whereby the control lever means may move to starboardor port to move the universal swivel and the yoke structure to the bowsteering device and a further swivel connected to said yoke structure, apush rod connected to said latter swivel and control operating meansfrom the push rod to the forward and reverse control means on said pump,whereby the control lever controls both starboard and port direction aswell as forward and reverse direction for the water craft.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS300,131 Reichmann June 10, 1884 514,527 Wauters Feb. 13, 1894 917,201Vollmer Apr. 6, 1909 961,306 Mayhall June 14, 1910 1,337,442 De CazenApr. 20, 1920 1,541,712 Horn June 9, 1925 1,694,840 Brown Dec. 11, 19281,702,222 Paxton Feb. 12, 1929 1,759,442 Depew May 20, 1930 2,024,274Campini Dec. 17, 1935 2,363,550 Reichert Nov. 28, 1944 2,745,506McCallurn May 15, 1956 2,993,463 McKinney July 25, 1961 FOREIGN PATENTS746,383 Great Britain Mar. 14, 1956 OTHER REFERENCES Robberson, Wet-JetPropulsion, Yachting Magazine, vol. 106, No. 5, pp. -71, November 1959,

1. IN A BOW STEERING DEVICE FOR A BOAT EQUIPPED WITH A HYDRAULIC PUMP, ASOURCE OF WATER UNDER HIGH PRESSURE FROM SAID PUMP, CONDUIT MEANS FROMSAID SOURCE, DIVERTER VALVE MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID CONDUIT, ADDITIONALOUTLET CONDUIT MEANS FROM SAID DIVERTER VALVE TO EACH SIDE OF THE BOAT,JET NOZZLE OPENINGS IN SAID OUTLET CONDUIT MEANS ADJACENT THE SIDES OFTHE BOAT FOR INJECTING A HIGH PRESSURE STREAM FROM NOZZLE OPENINGS, SAIDDIVERTER VALVE MEANS COMPRISING A SINGLE ACTUATING MEANS AND BUTTERFLYVALVES IN EACH OUTLET CONDUIT, SAID ACTUATING MEANS COMPRISING A PAIR OFCONTROL ARMS CONNECTED TO SAID BUTTERFLY VALVES, EACH OF SAID ARMS BEINGSLIDABLY CONNECTED WITH A TRANSVERSE ARM, CONTROL MEANS IN CONNECTIONWITH SAID TRANSVERSE ARM FOR SELECTIVELY ROTATING ONE OF SAID BUTTERFLYVALVES TO AN OPEN POSITION WHILE MAINTAINING THE OTHER IN A CLOSEDPOSITION.